If you’ve ever been for an interview with Flow you’ll know that having passed the interview means you have a pet, pets or are an animal lover – one of the main requirements (apart from not being a serial killer and having some serious skills) for becoming a Flowstar.
Since we’ve been working remotely, Flow furstars make regular cameo appearances during our online meetings. We thought we’d formally introduce you to some of them ...
The dogs
“These are my two beautiful, quirky and very entertaining little weirdo dogs, both of them adopted from my kids – Pogo the Pekinese and Lucy Liu the pug.
“I have recently started using the ‘Pogo pram’ to take Pogo walking/running, as he is struggling with a back issue.
“He, of course, hates the thing but I use it just to get to and from the park. Once there he is able to run around until he is exhausted.
“Lucy must be the most energetic pug in the world! She comes walking with us on a Sunday and absolutely loves it, and can outrun us all!” – Ros Caboz
“This is Daisy, the smallest (weighing about 1.5kg) but oldest of my four pets. She is my favourite, and I think I’m hers, too. Daisy is a miniature Yorkshire terrier and loves a good walk or run. She never stops begging, but that’s okay – I do share. And don’t try to come near me when Daisy is on duty – she will bring out her inner cobra!” – Zandile Phoshoko
“Carley is about one and half years old, and is very shy and skittish. When she was a puppy someone threw rocks at her. We got her when Covid-19 hit South Africa and on her first night she got stuck in our security gate.
“Alfred is eight months old, and we got him as a friend for Carley. From behind, his ears look like the Batman sign, so we called him Alfred [Batman’s butler]. He also has a slight red beard. Both of them enjoy coming along on our camping and hiking trips to places like Cederberg and Montagu, and they love sleeping in the tent with us.” – Anton Boshoff
“So this is Dexter, scavenger of note, and this is his ‘please let me in’ pose that I have to respond to about six times a day. He is quite polite, and doesn’t scratch the door or anything, but his presence is hard to ignore.
“He outdid himself last week by getting to a steak that was defrosting in the sun on our kitchen wall, which is 1.8m high. He must be the world’s first spring-loaded Rottweiler!” – Janet Berger
“I have two pets of my own – Roberta the wonder dog and Nemo, the oldest cat in the world. This year Nemo turns 22! Which is old. Recently a new neighbour moved in who has a dog called Phoebe. He acquired Phoebe during lockdown, and she really, really doesn’t like being left alone – she barks and barks! So to alleviate my pain, I offered to look after Phoebe during the day while I work. It’s been interesting …” – Caroline Smith
The cats
“Maxie is an adorable six-year-old boy who loves me (almost) as much as I love him! His story is a true rags-to-riches tale: an animal charity plucked him from the wilds near the Lion Park when he was a tiny kitten, and he was like a fierce little cub when we adopted him in Joburg shortly after. (We truly suspect he has some African wildcat in him.)
“These days, he’s the world’s most-photographed cat, loving his life of leisure on Cape Town’s Atlantic seaboard. At night, he sleeps on my shoulder, or squashed against my chest. He always announces himself when he walks into the room, always comes when we call his name and just loves snoozing in his basket in front of the fire in winter.” – Libby Peacock
“My mother used to foster kittens until they found a new home. Just over a decade ago I decided I wanted a furry companion. My mom was informed about two kittens that had been neglected. The aim was to keep just one, but my mom insisted we could not separate the twins, so we kept both. We nursed them from about the age of five days – we estimated this by the fact that their ears and eyes had not yet opened, and the pads on their paws were not fully developed.
“I named them Cheshire and Silhouette. Cheshire, because of the cat in Alice in Wonderland, who happens to make me smile in the manner of the cat in Alice in Wonderland. Silhouette because, well, he is so dark that he resembles a silhouette, and also matches his name in a way, because he is so silly.
“They have varied purrsonalities and skills: extreme balance, lack of balance; super intelligence, a little less intelligence; and all kinds of attitudes – silly, goofy, love-love. I could never be thankful enough for them.” – Hannah Nefdt
“Calico has a daily routine – morning in the front garden, on the grass so she can watch the birds and the lizards. We have a lot of lizards in our garden, and very few of them are not growing back their tails.
“As soon as the sun is gone from the front garden, Calico comes inside and lies in the sun on the carpet in Heather’s room, and then, when that’s gone, moves to the next sunny spot, and the next.
“She arrives as soon as I am talking to my laptop to join whatever meeting I am having, and because of her I have inadvertently recorded meetings.
“Although Calico is almost nine, she is still playful. She loves to chase a scrunched-up ball of paper and sometimes she just runs about the house for fun. Noisily. We have noticed, though, that she’s no longer a spring chicken – jumping is sometimes harder for her and there’s a teensy bit of middle-aged spread.” – Sue Blaine
“Since the lockdown, I’ve learned so much from Egypt, truth be told. Such as saying no – have you ever seen a cat that will willingly do something they don’t want to? NOPE, and that has been my mantra for a few months now – nothing good comes out of pleasing everyone except yourself :-)
“Another and probably the most important lesson is to rest (get plenty of it). I had no idea how much my cat slept in a 24-hour day (so jealous) and honestly, taking a breather every so often is integral to our mental health.” – Riefkah Adams
“This black ball of fluff is Tokio the cat. I was her foster mom for a while when I used to live with many humans in a house in Linden.
“She loved climbing up onto a high shelf in my bedroom and knocking books down onto me while I was working at the desk below, a little reminder that she was there and needed attention.
“Black cats are so hard to photograph but take my word for it that she has beautiful yellow eyes. She wasn’t my cat and so I had to leave her at the Linden house where she still lives with two other cats – a huge ginger one called Hobbes and a crafty, athletic one called Litchi.
“I miss them all the time. They are all under the care of a friend of mine, Chris, and I know they have a good life.” – Kerry Robertson
“We got Casper, a rescue, about four years ago, when he was a sickly little kitten. He nearly died on us, which was horrible because our other cat, George, had just expired of old age. But he pulled through and grew into the most beautiful, glossy beastie. He’s a bit eccentric: he only does affection on his own terms, although he secretly loves being manhandled; he can’t go anywhere without meowing all the way; and he drools when he purrs.” – Willem Steenkamp
The others
“My pet chinchilla, who will be five in October, is named Luna. I got her when she was only 12 weeks old. She has her own air cooler for hot summer days, as they can get heatstroke quite quickly.
“She responds to her name and the word ‘No!’, which I use often because she will literally chew on anything – earphones, a door, chair paws, hair bands, you name it.” – Lynzi Herbst
And last, but not least. In fact, probably most ...
“I live with six dogs, two cats and around 60 horses. Laphroaig is my favourite foal – he’s not even nine months old but is already the same height as me. He’s named after one of my favourite whiskies.” – Roy Barford
